Using the new KAT-7 telescope in the Karoo and the existing 26 m radio telescope at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO), South African and international astronomers have observed a neutron star system known as Circinus X-1 as it fires energetic matter from its core in extensive, compact jets that flare brightly. The details [continue reading]

ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescope has helped to identify a star and a black hole that orbit each other at the dizzying rate of once every 2.4 hours, smashing the previous record by nearly an hour. Black hole-star pair orbiting at dizzying speed. Image Credit: ESA The black hole in this compact pairing, known as [continue reading]

Like an immense donut (or toroid) that expands daily. That’s how Jesús Corral-Santana, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), describes the odd – hitherto unknown – structure of the binary system Swift J1357.2-0933, consisting of a ‘normal’ star and a stellar-mass black hole (which feeds off its companion star). The [continue reading]

Astronomers have used INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton to look into the neutron star in IGR J17252-3616, a highly obscured X-ray binary system. The data show how the neutron star, which is being fuelled by the stellar wind from its companion, is substantially deflecting the flow of the accreted material. Comparison with numerical simulations provides an [continue reading]